BRFK published details about Thursday’s alleged coordinated attack on opposition activists’ stands, which was reported by leading politicians of opposition parties. Klára Dobrev (DK) and Tímea Szabó (Párbeszéd) claimed that aggressive people “attacked their stands in three places at the same time” in Budapest, and even beat an opposition activist. They attributed the “organized attack” to Fidesz, but according to the police, it doesn’t look like an organized attack took place, just the suicide of a mentally disturbed, drunk man.
Already on Thursday afternoon, the BRFK shaded the politician’s statements, according to which “the signature collection booths in Blaha Lujza Square, Deák Square and Békásmegyer were attacked almost simultaneously, and that “the tents in Deák Square had to be closed because all the activists who were there were beaten the attackers”. The police announced at the time that there was indeed an incident on Deák Square, but only a drunken man insulted the opposition signature collectors and even dragged one of them.
On Friday, the BRFK explained the circumstances of the case(s) in detail at a press conference. According to MTI’s report, the police interrogated the man on suspicion of rioting, who acted aggressively against activists at a signature gathering tent on Deák Square, said Soma Csécsi, spokesperson of the BRFK.
The police caught the man and produced him, but he was so drunk that they could only question him as a suspect hours later.
The 29-year-old attacker was detained for the offense of disorderly conduct, and his psychiatric examination was also justified, Csécsi said. On Thursday, there was also a report that several people were drinking, partying loudly, and disturbing the peace on Heltai Square in Békásmegyer. By the time the police and public area supervision staff arrived at the scene, they had no longer experienced this, but the two people involved in the report were certified.
Soma Csécsi added that the police are analyzing camera footage to determine whether there was a riot, but for now it looks like the two cases are not connected, so the police believe that there was no organized attack on signature-collecting activists. The police press conference did not mention the incident on Blaha Lujza Square, but according to MTI, contrary to what Dobrev and Tímea Szabó said on Thursday, there was no third incident on Blaha Lujza Square, “the person who reported it confused the scene with Deák Square”.
Tags: organized attack opposition stands drunken man ranting
